IoT alone will create 15 million jobs: Aruna Sundararajan

IoT, in a nutshell, is about connecting all devices to the internet so that it can send and receive data to make smart predictions.Nilesh Christopher | ET Bureau | September 15, 2017, 08:42 IST

New technologies like Internet of Things (IoT) have the potential to create 10-15 million jobs even as the IT services sector is struggling to create new jobs in the economy, said telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan.

“In Bengaluru and other places, there have been concerns about how Indian IT will cope with new challenges and new technologies. We believe, or rather it is estimated, that India can have 10-15 million new jobs created in IoT alone,“ Sundararajan said at a news conference at the IoT India Congress 2017.

IoT in a nutshell is about connecting all devices -phones, watches, cooker, stove, TVs, watches etc -to the internet so that it can send and receive data to make smart predictions.The sensors in these devices enable the transfer of data. IoT has applications across sectors ranging from agriculture and healthcare to education.

“IoT has huge potential for job creation and most of these will not be created by large companies but by startups,“ Sundararajan said. “Startups have created solutions in diagnostics, sports wearable, water managements -the areas which were traditionally problematic have become opportunities.“

The IoT space is booming in India with about 65% of Indian startups working on it. The government is looking at ways to lay out regulations for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications.

“Towards the beginning of next year, we will have a complete set of best practices for IoT,“ she said. “In addition, the ministries of IT and telecom are working together to bring in robust security protocols for new technologies.“

Earlier this month, the Telecom and Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) came up with its first set of recommendation on licensing, privacy, spectrum availability, SIM requirements and the like for enabling IoT in India.

The role of telecom service providers in accelerating the adoption of IoT is crucial since high-quality connectivity forms its backbone.

“Unless we have strong underlying growth in telecom infrastructure, IoT can't happen in scale,“ Sundararajan said. “IoT is the huge flow of data between people and machines, and with machines themselves... We need the current infrastructure to be upgraded. Our (govern IoT can't happen in scale, " Sundararajan said. “IoT is the huge flow of data between people and machines, and with machines themselves... We need the current infrastructure to be upgraded. Our (government) effort will be to ensure that we are able to incentivize these new technologies.“ She also said security and data protection are key areas for the cur rent government and the roll out of a “full fledged“ data protection law by the Srikrishna Commission will have a significant impact on IoT.